Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-05T04:31:06.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

22 - Assessing Age-Related Mortality at Petra, Jordan, Using Cementochronology and Hazard Modeling

from Part III - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

Stephan Naji
Affiliation:
New York University
William Rendu
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux (CNRS)
Lionel Gourichon
Affiliation:
Université de Nice, Sophia Antipolis
Get access

Summary

Age-at-death mortality profiles provide an important supplementary record of mortality risks that archaeological populations faced. We use hazard modeling to calculate the risk of death by age for adults to establish a mortality profile for the Petra North Ridge sample. Age-at-death estimates were generated using cementochronology from 66 individuals, which not only provides more accurate age estimates but increases our sample size due to the fragmented and commingled nature of the Petra assemblage. Our results indicate that the mortality profile from Petra resembles that of an attritional sample. The regional and local political-economic, physical and social environments resulted in age-specific mortality risks lower than that typically expected for an ancient, urban population and potentially reflected immigration of young adults into Petra.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al Qahtani, S. J., Hector, M. P., and Liversidge, H. M.. 2010. Brief Communications: The London Atlas of Human Tooth Development and Eruption. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142(3): 481–90.Google ScholarPubMed
Arlot, S., and Celisse, A.. 2010. A Survey of Cross-Validation Procedures for Model Selection. Statistics Survey 4: 4079.Google Scholar
Bikai, P., and Perry, M.. 2001. Petra North Ridge Tombs 1 and 2: Preliminary Report. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 324: 5978.Google Scholar
Bocquet-Appel, J.-P., and Masset, C.. 1982. Farewell to Paleodemography. Journal of Human Evolution 11(4): 321–33.Google Scholar
Bocquet-Appel, J., and Masset, C.. 1985. Matters of Moment. Journal of Human Evolution 14: 107–11.Google Scholar
Bocquet-Appel, J., and Masset, C.. 1996. Paleodemography: Expectancy and False Hope. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 99(4): 571–83.3.0.CO;2-X>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boldsen, J., Milner, G., Konigsberg, L., and Wood, J.. 2002. Transition Analysis: A New Method for Estimating Age from Skeletons. In Paleodemography: Age Distributions from Skeletal Samples. Hoppa, R. and Vaupel, J. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 73106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buikstra, J., and Ubelaker, D., eds. 1994. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains: Proceedings of a Seminar at the Field Museum of Natural History. Arkansas: Arkansas Archeological Survey.Google Scholar
Canipe, C. 2014. Exploring Quality of Life at Petra Through Paleopathology. MA thesis, East Carolina University, Greenville.Google Scholar
Caswell, H. 2010. Life Table Response Experiment Analysis of the Stochastic Growth Rate. Journal of Ecology 98: 324–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, A. T. 2006. Demography in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Charles, D., Condon, K., Cheverud, J., and Buikstra, J.. 1986. Cementum Annulation and Age Determination in Homo Sapiens. I. Tooth Variability and Observer Error. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 71: 311–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeWitte, S. 2014. Differential Survival among Individuals with Active and Healed Periosteal New Bone Formation. International Journal of Paleopathology 7: 3844.Google Scholar
Durand, C. 2007. The Nabataeans and Oriental Trade: Roads and Commodities (Fourth Century BC to First Century AD). In Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan. al-Khraysheh, F (ed.). Amman: Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 405–11.Google Scholar
Gage, T. 1988. Mathematical Hazard Models of Mortality: An Alternative to Model Life Tables. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 76(4): 429–41.Google Scholar
Gompertz, B. 1825. On the Nature of the Function Expressive of the Law of Human Mortality, and on a New Mode of Determining the Value of Life Contingencies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 115: 513–83.Google Scholar
Gowland, R. L., and Chamberlain, A. T.. 2005. Detecting Plague: Palaeodemographic Characterisation of a Catastrophic Death Assemblage. Antiquity 79: 146–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoppa, R., and Vaupel, J.. 2002. The Rostock Manifesto for Paleodemography: The Way from Stage to Age. In Paleodemography: Age Distributions from Skeletal Samples. Hoppa, R. and Vaupel, J. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 18.Google Scholar
Kolb, B. 2007 Nabatatean Private Architecture. The World of the Nabataeans. Politis, K. D. (ed.). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 145–72.Google Scholar
Makeham, W. 1860. On the Law of Mortality. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries 13: 325–58.Google Scholar
McElreath, R. 2018. Statistical Rethinking: A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan. Boca Raton: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Naji, S., Colard, T., Blondiaux, J., Betrand, B., d’Incau, E., and Bocquet-Appel, J.-P.. 2016. Cementochronology, to Cut or Not to Cut? International Journal of Paleopathology 140: 17.Google Scholar
Nehmé, L. 2003. The Petra Survey Project. In Petra Rediscovered. Markoe, G. (ed.). London: Thames & Hudson, 145–63.Google Scholar
Nehmé, L. 2013. The Installation of Social Groups in Petra. In Men on the Rocks: The Formation of Nabataean Petra. Mouton, M. and Schmid, S. G. (eds.). Berlin: Logos Verlag GmbH, 113–28.Google Scholar
Parker, T., and Perry, M.. 2013. Petra North Ridge Project: The 2012 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 57: 399407Google Scholar
Parker, T., and Perry, M. 2017. Petra North Ridge Project: The 2017 Season. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 58: 287302.Google Scholar
Perry, M. 2017. Sensing the Dead: Mortuary Ritual and Tomb Visitation at Nabataean Petra. Syria 94: 99106.Google Scholar
Perry, M., and Walker, J.. 2018. The Nabataean Way of Death on Petra’s North Ridge. In Death and Burial in the Near East from Roman to Islamic Times. Eger, C. and Mackensen, M (eds.). Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 121–38.Google Scholar
Perry, M., and Lieurance, A.. 2020. The Nabataean Urban Experiment and Dental Disease and Childhood Stress. In The Bioarchaeology of Urbanization: The Biological, Demographic, and Social Consequences of Living in Cities. Betsinger, T. and DeWitte, S. (eds.). Cham: Springer International Publishing.Google Scholar
Sattenspiel, L., and Harpending, H.. 1983. Stable Populations and Skeletal Age. American Antiquity 48(3): 489–98.Google Scholar
Schmid, S. G. 2000. Petra ez-Zantur II. Ergebnisse der Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinischen Ausgrabungen, Teil I: Die Feinkeramik der Nabatäer: Typologie, Chronologie und kulturhistorische Hintergründe. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Tholbecq, L. 2007. Nabataean Monumental Architecture. In The World of the Nabataeans. Politis, K.D. (ed.). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 103–43.Google Scholar
Tholbecq, L. 2016. Wadi Sabra Archaeological Project. American Journal of Archaeology 120(4): 666–7.Google Scholar
Wadeson, L. 2012. The Funerary Landscape of Petra: Results from a New Study. In The Nabataeans in Focus: Current Archaeological Research at Petra. Nehme, L. and Wadeson, L. (eds.). Oxford: Archaeopress, 99125.Google Scholar
Wadeson, L. 2013. Petra: Behind the Monumental Facades. Current World Archaeology 57(1): 1824.Google Scholar
Wittwer-Backofen, U., Gampe, J., and Vaupel, J.. 2004. Tooth Cementum Annulation for Age Estimation: Results from a Large Known-Age Validation Study. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 123: 119–29.Google Scholar
Wood, Carolann. 2004. An Investigation of the Prevalence of Rickets among Subadults from the Roman Necropolis of Isola Sacra (1st to 3rd centuries AD), Italy. PhD dissertation, McMaster University, Hamilton.Google Scholar
Wood, J., Holman, D., O’Connor, K., and Ferrell, R.. 2002. Mortality Models of Paleodemography. In Paleodemography: Age Distributions from Skeletal Samples. New York: Cambridge University Press, 129–70.Google Scholar
Wood, J., Milner, G. R., Harpending, H .C., and Weiss, K. M.. 1992. The Osteological Paradox. Current Anthropology 33(4): 343–70.Google Scholar
Yaussy, S. L., DeWitte, S. N., and Redfern, R. C.. 2016. Frailty and Famine: Patterns of Mortality and Physiological Stress among Victims of Famine in Medieval London. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 160: 272–83.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×